Raspberry Pi Pico W is a versatile microcontroller board from the Raspberry Pi Foundation that brings a new level of connectivity to the Pico lineup. It's designed to be an accessible and affordable platform for makers, hobbyists, and educators looking to build projects that require wireless capabilities.

At its core, the Pico W features the RP2040 microcontroller, a chip designed by Raspberry Pi. This chip is quite powerful for a microcontroller, with a dual-core ARM Cortex M0+ CPU running at 133 MHz, providing ample processing power for a wide array of tasks. It also includes a rich set of peripherals, such as a USB controller, multiple communication interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART), and a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which makes it suitable for interacting with sensors and other analog devices.

One of the standout features of the Pico W is its integrated Wi-Fi, which operates on the 802.11b/g/n standard, allowing the board to connect directly to Wi-Fi networks. This is a significant advantage for projects that require internet connectivity, such as home automation, remote monitoring, or IoT devices. The board also supports Bluetooth 5.2, which includes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), enabling the creation of wireless peripherals or devices that can communicate with smartphones and other Bluetooth-enabled devices.

The Pico W comes with 2MB of onboard flash memory and 264KB of SRAM, providing ample space for storing code and data. This memory configuration is particularly useful for applications that require fast access to data or that need to run complex algorithms.